Pave: Ex-Jack, The Adventure Continues VIII

Le jour 198 de Sarko

The great thing about the law catching up to Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack is his sudden and heightened desire for virtue.

CHIRAC VEUT « SE BATTRE POUR SON HONNEUR »
[CHIRAC WANTS "TO FIGHT FOR HIS HONOR"]
November 23, 2007 (Figaro/AFP/Le Parisien)

« AUCUN ENRICHISSEMENT PERSONNEL ...
... puisque j'étais l'état »

CHIRAC VOWS TO FIGHT FOR 'TRUTH' AND 'HONOUR'

PARIS November 22, 2007 (AFP) - "I am going to fight at the same time for the truth and my honour," [Former French president Jacques] Chirac said in comments aired [Thursday] on the TF1 television channel.

... Chirac was placed under formal investigation Wednesday as part of the probe [of fraud during his mayoralty, 1997-1995]. The move marked the first time a former French head of state has been put under judicial investigation, which is a first step towards possible criminal charges.

... In an article in Le Monde newspaper Wednesday, Chirac denied that he had recruited "officials" at City Hall for political purposes. Then Jack, Now Ex-Jack:

Never were funds belonging to the City of Paris used for any other aim than on behalf of Parisian men and women.* Never was there personal enrichment. Never was there a 'system'.

[Jamais les moyens de la Ville de Paris n'ont été mis au service d'autres ambitions que d'agir pour les Parisiennes et les Parisiens. Jamais il n'y a eu d'enrichissement personnel. Jamais il n'y a eu de "système".]

Then again [Pause.] maybe there was a system.

JACQUES CHIRAC DÉFEND
UN « SYSTÈME DEVENU DÉMOCRATIQUE » DEVANT LA JUGE
[THEN-JACK, NOW EX-JACK DEFENDS
"SYSTEM THAT CAME TO BE DEMOCRATIC" BEFORE THE BENCH]
22 novembre 2007 (Le Monde)

Arriving at the Hôtel de Ville Then-Jack found a "situation curieuse". Municipal responsibilities were not clearly defined. Then-Jack, of course, changed all that with his "système devenu démocratique", which system is the very thing investigating judge Xavière Siméoni suspects was criminal.

MISE EN EXAMEN DE M. CHIRAC : M. DE VILLEPIN SOULIGNE
QU'IL N'Y A PAS EU D'ENRICHISSEMENT PERSONNEL
[INVESTIGATION OF THEN-JACK, NOW EX-JACK: DOM** STRESSES
THERE WAS NO PERSONAL ENRICHMENT]
21 novembre 2007 (Le Monde)

"No personal enrichment" is a crucial distinction among caught-out magouilleurs. They insist on it. This usually means they believe that the enjoyments of graft will not be parsed as enrichments or, failing that, cannot be tied directly to them.

In the case of Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack pleading no connection between the enrichment of his political party (Rassemblement pour la République, RPR) and his own fortunes [Long pause.] well, that is a mighty stretch. His being elected was a personal enrichment, and once elected he used the Paris weal like a personal honeypot. When he went on to the presidency, he abused the commonweal in kind.

Then-Jack ate excellently well. He swilled excellently well. He slept excellently well. All these excellencies were amenities of office. And they were pricey. Then-Jack enjoyed them and passed the bills onto the taxpayers.

It is these enjoyments -- the appurtenances of attained office, which attainment was abetted by criminal practices, practices that were then perpetuated in office -- that Pave considers personal enrichment.

Here are the dots, stacked one atop the next, so Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack can better understand the charges he is facing:

• Everyone, including Ex-Jack himself, agrees money was extorted and patronage bought to profit the RPR party. Various prosecutions (and here and here) have established the clarity and sufficiency of the law prohibiting these practices at the time.

• The RPR downstreamed the benefits to its workers as salaries and its candidates as funding.

• A candidate was further personally enriched when the illicit funding enabled him to win office.

But let us pretend, like Then-Jack, Now Ex-Jack, that Then-Jack remained as austere as a stylite, that in an ocean of dirty money he -- and judging by the scores of related convictions -- he alone remained as dry as a bone. [Pause.] There are still the commissions of the crimes, the criminal practices, the criminal advantages sought. [Pause.] There is still all that.

------------------------------------
* Those Parisians belonging to the Then-Jack's RPR. An uncontested point.

** It is hard to imagine a better matched character witness than la Mouette .

PFFT (What is this?): Unenriched crook 0 | Garden variety crook 5 | Rayonnement français 0

Posted by Damian at November 29, 2007 08:30 AM